


There was a very long pause

by dispatch



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 16:10:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11717859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dispatch/pseuds/dispatch
Summary: Shikamaru tries to find answers. A cat tries to help





	There was a very long pause

**Author's Note:**

> ‘You’re all right?’ her mother asked.  
> Buttercup sipped her cocoa. ‘Fine,’ she said.  
> ‘You’re sure?’ her father wondered.  
> ‘Yes,’ Buttercup replied. There was a very long pause. ‘But I must never love again.’
> 
> The name came from Princess Bride. Cause I am the most creative B)  
> Though this is more love in general then romantic love. More feelings at all, honestly. It works I guess.  
> I have no idea what this even is /o\

As Shikamaru crested the hill, he wondered if anyone had even noticed he had left the village yet. Though he was pretty sure he had at least a week before Ino or his mother decided it was time for him to get a move on with life. For now, everyone had been treating him gently and giving him excuses, as though they can see the hole that was left in him from losing Asuma. They thought what he needed was time, he knew. He didn’t want time, it left him feeling restless and nowhere to place the anger that had built inside of him, but he would use it while he had it. 

It had taken him two days to reach here, the sun peaked at him cheerily through the branches. Shikamaru dropped the bag he was carrying on the ground and followed till he was kneeling on the damp dew ridden grass. It was a quiet place, nothing but the wind whispered nonsense in the leaves. No one had been here for years, the remains of man being the fallen torii gates that were mostly covered in kudzu.

The solid wall of the cliff was a shrine once, he knew though at the was left was a small indent in the stone. Worn smooth by the years and the weather. He felt only a little awkward as he clapped loudly and bowed to the weathered stone. He stayed down, head near touching the ground and squeezed his eyes shut and hoped. Maybe it could be considered a prayer, except he wasn’t sure if it would really count coming from him. The wind tickled the bare skin of his arms making him shiver as the minutes creeped by and he stayed down. Trying to think loudly and wishing it was enough. The earth still cold from the winter months, it felt as though the heat seeped from legs into the stone below. From a distance, the soft scratching of a stag as it rubbed its antlers against a trunk.

“Never expected you to show up here,” someone whispered softly and Shikamaru jerked his head up, frowning. The clearing was still empty except for a small cat that sat and watched him from one of the columns. “Disappointed I’m not the old man?” The cat asked lightly as though it hasn’t been years since he last saw the cat god. _Yes_ , Shikamaru wanted to say. He felt the word burn like poison on the back of his tongue. Vicious and vile with regret and loneliness and senseless rage. Except that would have been a lie.

Time does little here and he is the same spirit he knew before. He knew, logically, that the years since he had seen the cat last – and it was a fuzzy memory of childhood as the other had laughed at Shikamaru’s tiny little baby attempts at movement – had been little more than a blink of the eye to the spirit. It still hurt though, somehow.

“I don’t really know,” Shikamaru admitted, finally. “I didn’t actually think either of you would even talk to me.”

The cat blinked at him slowly, seeming to think on it before turning his nose into the air, “You smell, kitten. All anger and grief, like a lost little human.”

Shikamaru choked on a hoarse laugh, sitting back on his heels. “I kind of am one, if you couldn’t tell.”

The cat stretched, digging his claws into the old wood before hoping off and trotting closer. Rubbing against Shikamaru’s hand where he had been clutching the knees of his pants. The youkai looked up expectantly, purring loudly when Shikamaru finally picked him up. 

“Smelly human,” it purred into his chest.

“I could stop petting you,” Shikamaru offered. Despite his words he pulled the cat a little closer, enjoying the warmth.

The cat’s tail twitched against his leg, and it sighed heavily. “It’s not your fault. Humans feel so much so fast. Like everything is new all over again and so much more important. No wonder you smell.”

That was the problem, Shikamaru thought. Feelings and the sick twist in his mind he couldn’t let go. “I don’t know what to do,” he breathed quietly into the cat’s head.

“Be human,” the cat rumbled softly. “Everything will turn out eventually.” 

“Even if I hunt them down and kill them?” Shikamaru laughed brokenly.

“It would be a human thing to do,” The cat assured him. Moving till its paws pushed against Shikamaru and it could meet his gaze.

“Like you were?” Shikamaru had to ask.

The cat pinned its ears and twisted around till Shikamaru let him drop back onto the forest floor. Walking away till it disappeared behind the bushes that lined the cliff face.

Somewhere above him a bird sang in a light, on and off tune. Shikamaru pulled his feet out from under him and dropped his head on a knee. The morning light on the floor danced gently and he could hear the soft grunts of the deer from earlier. 

A good deal later, after the deer had left and the birds had switched out with other singing birds, a rock fell by his hand, having him look up above the old shrine where the cat had returned and now sat, delicately washing his paw.

“Yes,” The cat said, finally deciding to finish the conversation from earlier. Shikamaru didn’t know what to say to that and left it there as the cat finished cleaning itself before slowly climbing back down to him. For a while, as Shikamaru watched his old friend, the empty vast feeling felt that had been following him for days seemed suddenly and strangely like in that moment it wasn’t quite so bad. Like for this moment in time it had let up enough for him to just breathe. 

“We aren’t ignoring you, you know,” the cat offered some time later when it had taken its place leaning against Shikamaru’s leg. “Just because it is a little harder for you to reach us doesn’t mean we aren’t here for you.” 

“It’s nice to know, Shisui,” Shikamaru tried to smile at the little spirit. 

“Aw, yes. I have a name now,” The cat preened a bit before shaking his head and hissing lightly. “But spirits, was I stupid when I earned it.”

Shikamaru laughed, “I thought you were very brave.” The cat looked back up at him, wide-eyed and ears back, “Also very human.”

“Don’t remind me,” Shisui growled. “I probably smelled worse then you, too.” A second later his ear tipped forward and he whipped his tail playfully in the soft moss, “You have a name now too, Shikamaru. All human like and stinky.” The cat tipped his head up and purred, “I’m so proud.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to be more obvious in this thing but the person who read it over told me no it ruins the whimsy. So I basically cut everything that was blatantly revealing out and this is what was left? If anyone has any questions or theories or think I definitely should not have done that, fire away. This was my bday gift to myself and I would love to discuss.


End file.
